RSA 2: Successful Educational Leadership at High Performing Schools

http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED520457.pdf

The readings for Module 3 address the need for a professional learning community to have a results oriented structure. Dufour, Dufour, Eaker and Many (2010) believe that the SMART goal acronym can and should be used to align the goals of the learning community. They write “Goals are SMART when they are strategic (aligned with the organization’s goals) and specific, measurable, attainable, results oriented, and time bound” (p. 158). The authors also believe that in conjunction with these SMART goals, that organizations should also have stretch goals that “are intended to inspire, to capture the imagination of people within the organization, to stimulate creativity and innovation, and to serve as a unifying focal point of effort” (p. 160). These goals, when used in conjunction, allow for a clear structure and provide the PLC to achieve.

In Successful Educational Leadership at High Performing Schools, the author sets forth the idea that high achieving schools have six elements in common that help lead to this success. According to Wilson (2011), these include an agreed upon vision, instructional leadership, a safe, orderly and respectful environment, timely monitoring of student progress, professional learning communities, and school and family partnerships (p. 394-396). Within monitoring of student progress, Wilson believes that to have success, “Students’ achievement data were analyzed and openly shared among teachers to facilitate the improvement of individual and collective performance” (p. 395).

The readings in Module 3 and the article above are closely related in that goals are essential for creating and maintaining a successful professional learning community. In Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work the authors believe that achievable (SMART) and stretch goals are necessary to have success, and according to Wilson, (2011) in successful PLCs, “school wide goals and specific goals for individual students are set” (p. 396). Both readings address this need for PLCs to have goals to drive instruction and learning.

References

DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., Many, T. (2010). Learning by doing: A handbook for professional learning communities at work (2nd ed., pp. 155-204, 247-266). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Wilson, D. L. (2011). Successful Educational Leadership at High Performing Schools. US-China Education Review, Volume 8, n3 p 393-398. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED520457.pdf